Most large appliances today are shipped to the consumers on devices called shipping bases. These shipping bases today are usually made out of wood that has been stapled or nailed together. The first problem with these bases is that the base usually has to be made out of virgin wood and not out of recycled products. Thus, one of the objectives of this invention is to create a shipping base that can be made entirely out of recycled or waste products. Secondly, the base is assembled usually with fasteners such as staples. If these staples are not driven flush with the wood, they will bend and break causing projections and exposed points that injure individuals and destroy or damage a floor over which the appliance is moved. Thus, another objective of this invention is to create a shipping base that does not have to be put together with staples or fasteners and thus, remains smooth and will not damage objects over which it moves. The staples or fasteners, if they are not driven flush, could also catch on the machinery and conveyor belts that are used in the process of making the shipping base and placing it under the appliance. This, of course, would cause damage to expensive machinery and also could stop the automated process and thus, cost money in production. Thus, another objective of the invention is to create a shipping base which does not need fasteners nor staples and will easily be assimilated into the now automated process of placing the shipping base on the appliance and moving the appliance through the line without fear of the shipping base catching on machinery and the conveyor belts over which it passes.
The use of virgin wood also causes many other problems. The composition of wood is inconsistent. It sometimes splinters, or there could be excessive warpage, and the joints could be weakened from other problems such as knots or holes in the wood. To overcome these problems, particle board or a plywood could be used, however, as pointed out above, these woods are usually not used to form a shipping base since it is difficult to bond these products to form a shipping base in an automated process. Thus, one of the objectives of this invention is to create a shipping base that would allow for the use of particle board and plywood and other material made from recycled material. Virgin wood, due to the problems of splintering, warpage and inconsistent composition requires large dimensional tolerances. One of the objectives of this invention is to create a shipping base that can be easily and inexpensively fit within a small tolerance and thus, more easily moved through an automated process.
These problems have been known in industry for many years. One of the ways to solve these problems is to create a totally plastic shipping base. However, a totally plastic shipping base would be extremely expensive due to the material and the time it would take to make it. Thus, as pointed out above, shipping bases today are still made of virgin wood.
It is also difficult with an all virgin wood shipping base to make alterations on the wood base to accommodate for wheels or feet on the appliance. Thus, on the objectives of this invention is to create a method to create a shipping base in which clearance holes or clearance cut outs for wheels or feet or other such items can easily be incorporated into the shipping base. Also with virgin wood shipping base, it is difficult to add items such as cutouts for an edge or corner protection items. Thus, an objective of the invention is to create a shipping base that has a flexibility to add items like locating devices for edge or corner protection items.
The features of this invention that allows it to meet the objectives put forth above are that the corners of the shipping base are molded with an insertion mold process. Thus, a shipping base can be created that can be made out of totally recyclable material. Also this shipping base can be made out of plywood or particle board from waste material. The corners of the shipping base are plastic and can be formed from recyclable plastics. This method will produce a strong shipping base that can be made with a small tolerance and is very inexpensive.
By using molded corners, there are a lot of other advantages. The molded corners allow for extremely close tolerances. The corners, due to their molding, always remain the same and the same distance apart. However, the inserted pieces can vary in dimension considerably. It is just necessary to place the pieces in the mold further if it is longer or not as far if it is shorter. Also, the mold allows for openings to be placed in the mold for feet or wheels of the appliance. There can also be cut out sections of the mold to also meet the clearance for feet or wheels or other items that stick out of the bottom of the appliance. Also, locating devices can be added to the mold to located items such as corner protection items.
One of the disadvantages of the shipping base made out of virgin wood is that a great portion of the shipping base rest on the floor and thus, makes it difficult to move the shipping base over a horizontal surface. Thus, one of the objectives of the invention is to create a shipping base with feet so it can be easily moves over the floor.
One of the advantages of this method for making a shipping base is that the tolerances of the base can be kept very small. Since the corners are all molded out, their tolerance is extreme small. However, since the insertion pieces are inserted in the mold, they can have rather large tolerances since they can just stick a little further or a little shorter into the mold and still keep the tolerances of the overall base very small. This creates a large advantage because it allows recycled material to be used which may not meet tolerance standards.
The invention is basically a method of connecting two pieces of material with a molded object in between them. This method is basically done by a mold in which the material can be inserted within. In the preferred embodiment, the applicant is creating a frame in which all four corners are molded. In this embodiment the framing material forming the sides is inserted into the corner molds. The plastic then is injected or put in the molds. When the plastic hardens and the materials taken out of the molds, one has a frame in which the four corners have been molded and the framing pieces are securely attached to the four corners. In the preferred embodiment, to more securely attach the corner pieces to the molded corner, the framing material forming the sides has predrilled openings. This forms a more secure attachment between the molded corner and the material forming the sides of the frame.